green smoothies + veggies + happiness + chocolate

September 11, 2015September 14, 2015

Savory Oven Roasted Vegetables

Welcome to my new blog on healthy lifestyle, cooking, eating and all things green! I’m so excited to share recipes, ideas, pictures and thoughts in this space with you. I am a pesco-vegetarian from Cincinnati currently living in the Bay Area near San Francisco and I love yoga, pilates, weight training, dancing, hiking, and most of all FOOD. I have a passion for nutritious vegetarian cuisine as well as an outrageous sweet tooth. Some of my favorite foods are sushi, salmon, green smoothies, fruits, vegetables, salads, noodles, eggs, avocados, cheese, chocolate, and my soulmate/nemesis, ice cream; I will be sharing lots of recipes featuring these! It’s very important to me to have a fit, active and healthy lifestyle, so I am always focused on using activity and mindfulness to balance my obsession with good food.

I find the easiest way to succeed is to make super healthy meals and snacks that are also tasty and satisfying, like these savory oven roasted vegetables. I had bought these striking purple-and-yellow carrots, beets, zucchini and squash, which are all wonderful roasted.

First I chopped them all into similar size pieces (the smaller you chop them, the quicker they will roast) and preheated the oven to 400F.

Aren’t these carrots fancy?

I tossed them in olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic powder, and herbes de provence – my favorite combination. Oregano, rosemary or your favorite dried herb are also good options if you don’t have herbes de provence on hand.

I stirred the vegetables after about 15-20 minutes, and then gave them a little longer, since I like them really well roasted and caramelized. Keep watching them until they get as done as you like. It may take 30-50 minutes depending on the vegetable and how small the pieces are. The zucchini and squash cook faster and the beets and carrots take a little longer.

the zucchini and squash ready to eat – I sprinkled grated parmesan over top at the end. YUM.perfectly browned beets and carrots!

It’s hard not to just devour all of them straight out of the oven as soon as they are done! But the beauty of making a large batch is guaranteeing some leftovers for the next day.

You can roast just about any vegetable this way. Broccoli, cauliflower, mushrooms, onions, parsnips, potatoes, sweet potatoes, green beans, asparagus… this will make a veggie lover out of anyone and makes a great side dish alternative to french fries.

For an especially yummy treat, make carrot or sweet potato oven fries and serve with a mayo-based dip. I love experimenting with additions to mayo like lemon, garlic, curry powder, different herbs, soy sauce… the possibilities are endless. When we have dinner guests, these are always a hit. Or if you want to make it even healthier, make it a greek yogurt-based dip. I’ll share more dip and sauce ideas in another post!